Home Cockpit / VR Video Compare & Contrast

As I’ve been working more in VR alongside the home cockpit, I’ve been trying to video / stream of both. Each has its supporters, although on the whole my sense is that the YouTube audience prefers the home cockpit over the VR. I think that’s right. It’s a better visual experience (and not as potentially nauseating!), and probably feels more “real” to the online viewer. Chas, who comments here often, is trying to get me to stream in 3D so others could use their own VR gear to truly see what I see, but I’ve not gotten there as yet.

So I thought it would be interesting to post two recent streams here side-by-side. One is VR, the other home cockpit. I completed the home cockpit flight later today. It was fun, and it was certainly faster to work the GPS and the radios than in VR, and it was nice looking at a real iPad and ForeFlight display. But I have to tell you – it didn’t feel as much like flying. My plan is to probably stream in the home cockpit, but I’ll probably use the VR more often when flying on my own.

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16 thoughts on “Home Cockpit / VR Video Compare & Contrast”

BFG, you gotta do what you gotta do for your own enjoyment. I can probably speak for all the other followers of your blog when I say we appreciate the fact that you have shared your journey toward home flight simulation nerdvana. I’ve personally based my own “closet sim” in large part on your basement sim design.

From a spectator’s perspective, I very much prefer watching your cockpit videos and don’t even bother watching your VR videos. I don’t have VR, but even if I did, I find the more rapid motion of the VR experience to be a lot less enjoyable.

BFG, as somebody who has converted a fairly deep dive (not as deep as yours, though) from a physical cockpit build to a VR-based sim, I have to say I get far more information and help from the VR videos, cuz that’s what I’m doing myself.

However, from an eye-candy perspective, the physical cockpit videos, with your GoPro mounted above and to your right, and your monitor set-up adjusted to look correct in the GoPro within XP11, is more visually enjoyable and fun to watch.

I look at all of the videos, but there is no way around it , in my opinion at least,
It is impossible to stream or record a flight in VR and show us what you see.
The most iritating fact is the rapid and constant moving of the eye point,for the VR user this is normal, he looks around like in real life, for the 2 D viewer, this is not the case, after some time, I have to stop watching,
Looking at 3Dcontent is only nice, if you see it in 3D.
My two cents ofcourse.
Ivo

As a side note, I don’t have a VR set, I wear glasses, and from what
I read most people with glasses don’t like it, it is a bit cumbersome, specialy the Rift.
However I bought a set of correction lenses for the Rift, they come next week, and then I buy the Rift and see for myself the miracle!
If I like it, I will stop my build for a while and see what the future brings.

I’ve had no problem wearing glasses in my Samsung Odyssey, however I purchased a pair of VR Frames, which are eyeglasses with small frames, and instead of temples, they have an elastic strap.

I was concerned that either my everyday glasses, or the Fresnel lenses on the Odyssey, would get scratched.

The lenses Ivo was talking about are custom-made for a particular HMD, and they aren’t making any lenses for Windows MR headsets just yet. One nice feature of the VR Lenses is they are reverse-curved to match the inverse of the Fresnel lenses on the HMD.

I was wondering what your experience with the OR has been re. “The screen door effect”. I’ve just started messing with VR and I am seeing the advantages of it. But it still looks very grainy. Like I’m seeing the spaces between the pixels. I may have missed it in your VR setup post, but is there a fix for this? And have you heard any rumors that a new and improved OR is on the way? I’m using someone else’s at the moment and while I’m thinking of buying one I would be willing to wait for a less grainy version. I’ve dug around a bit on Google, but wasn’t able to come up with any intelliengence on this matter.

Make sure you have antialiasing set to 8x (in non HDR mode) or at least 2xSS (in HDR mode). Also, depending on your GPU, run with 1.2x to 1.8x supersampling (using the Oculus Debug Tool). If you have something like the GTX1080 this should all be possible and will give you an excellent view comparable in quality to regular 1080p with good antialiasing (but obviously with the amazing image scale and 360 degree view around you).

p.s. The Vive Pro is imminent with a 75% increase in pixel density. The native resolution of the headset is 2880 x 1600 and reviews have been excellent so far. Screen door effect is largely non-detectable. Although, interestingly some reviews point out that flaws in textures can be more apparent making some views appear less convincingly real looking that the slight lower res. I’ve also found that with some stuff when running the rift at 2x supersampling. Sometimes the image and texture become so sharp looking that the realism effect is lost slightly. i.e. It becomes a little too computer generated looking rather than real life looking.

And maybe not all people know this, but if you have multifocal lenses.
You need to give the precription for FAR, not near, because the focus point lies infinty in VR, althoug the lenses are close to your eyes
Ivo

I absolutely love flying in VR. It is so much more immersive that it’s hard to go back to 2D flying. I do fly 2D when flying something like the FF320, but for GA it’s VR all the way. Nothing can come close to giving that true feeling of being in the aircraft. I believe VR even surpasses fixed based cockpits because the immersion is so real, and the 3D graphics are so convincing to the brain in generating true height and depth, that you get that motion feeling in your stomach doing steep climbs, turns, and descents. Nothing else gives this sensation bar full motion simulators (and even then, they can only show a 2D representation of the out of the cockpit view – not true depth of field). The argument that the graphics are too poor doesn’t really stand when you run VR on a decent PC. You can run with supersampling and 8x antialiasing and it’s comparable to running x-plane on a standard 1080p monitor. The other thing that people don’t often mention is how textures take on a totally new level of realism when presented to your brain as a 3D image. The glass windows in the aircraft look totally like real glass. It’s truly an amazing effect.
I agree that YouTube videos are not suited to VR. Too much movement due to the head movement. The normal home cockpit is definitely suited better to that. But I truly recommend to everyone to invest in a Rift and jump into VR. Whether you are a sceptic or not – you will be truly amazed and likely never want to go back to anything less either!!

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NOTE: I am a hobbyist and private pilot student sharing my experiences in simulation and flight training. Do not use my content for flight instruction, for which you should consult a Certified Flight Instructor. Thank you.